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London Wasps/Coventry City


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Can someone with a better (i.e. any) knowledge of domestic rugby union explain why Wasps are moving to Coventry?

 

And I can't be doing with trawling through Sky Blues Talk but I'd hope there's some serious disquiet and discomfort about playing in the same stadium as a club who have exiled themselves from their fanbase just as SISU did when they took CCFC to Northampton.

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Can someone with a better (i.e. any) knowledge of domestic rugby union explain why Wasps are moving to Coventry?

 

And I can't be doing with trawling through Sky Blues Talk but I'd hope there's some serious disquiet and discomfort about playing in the same stadium as a club who have exiled themselves from their fanbase just as SISU did when they took CCFC to Northampton.

Costs and stadium size. Only really Saracens and Harlequins play in London anymore. London Irish, Wasps, and the recently in the Premiership London Welsh all play outside of London.

I think Wasps may have played one of their European games in Coventry in the past, when they were playing at Adams Park.

From a football fan's point of view the other likely option would have been MK, but as that would give the odious poisoned dwarf Winkleman more money in some ways SISU are the lesser of two evils.

To say they have been exiled from their fan-base is stretching it somewhat, as that happened a while ago when they moved to Wycombe, and even when they played at Loftus Road, because their origins are in the Finchley Road area, and they played in Sudbury, the move to Loftus Road could be seen as a move towards Harlequins area, or even London Welsh/Irish/Scottish area.

 

Wycombe's location and the increased risk of fixture postponements, even with Union's slightly less strict guidelines may have helped too. As I think Wasps had some big games postponed when they played at Wycombe, when other grounds, especially as Cov has under soil heating I would think, would have been playable.

 

By the sound of it Wasps will only play their 1st XV games at Coventry; their recruiting for junior levels will remain in London. It's a bit messed up but Top-level Rugby in London is a bit messed up, Saracens until last year played their games outside of London at Watford, and Quins have staved off moving away from their home through the Rugby League side and the links with Twickenham. None of the football teams want to share their grounds, and the Rugby sides don't get enough fans to make their own grounds worthwhile, hence the moves outside of London.

 

Other historical Rugby sides in London, Richmond, being perhaps the best example, went bust, as they overspent someone's money in the professional era, and I don't think every side who went bust has re-formed.

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It's all a huge RU consipiracy to crush small semi pro RL teams. Oxford RL form, London Welsh immediately move to the town. Coventry Bears get a place in the league for 2015, Wasps immediately move.

Wasps are parasites (the team not the errr Wasps, although some of them are too I'm sure) who have seen an opening. Much as their northern Vichyball chums at Sale did. AND ALL THE REST OF THEM *foam foam*

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From a football fan's point of view the other likely option would have been MK, but as that would give the odious poisoned dwarf Winkleman more money in some ways SISU are the lesser of two evils.

 

I'm pretty sure that SISU don't (or won't in a couple of years) own the ground and don't want Wasps to be there either, as it weakens their negotiating position for getting the Ricoh on the cheap.

 

I really feel for Coventry fans, although with the way SISU have acted in the past couple of years this situation kind of serves SISU right.

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